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The Alderqueen Strikes Again

Like many of you, I received the alderqueen’s newsletter on Wednesday of this week. As usual, it displayed a couple of pictures of Herself enjoying her favorite job activity–having her picture taken.

Like many of you, I missed the community invitation to the official ribbon-cutting of the new Bernie Stone Park at Devon & McCormick. At least Bernie’s family was invited. But Rahm and the alderqueen share a disdain for ordinary folks (you know who you are) and neither of them missed any of us. Rahm clearly doesn’t like to spend any more time in the 50th than he has to. He was in and out of the official groundbreaking for the park so fast that the few people in attendance didn’t know the “event” was over til he rushed away. And Queenie hates mixing with her constituents. Watch for the ribbon-cutting picture to surface in next year’s election campaign.

The newsletter also pictures the alderqueen with the principal of Decatur School. Regular readers will remember that West Ridge nearly lost the school to Rogers Park just last year, and Queenie didn’t lift a finger to help save it. But, in preparation for re-election, she’s suddenly the school’s biggest cheerleader. That picture, too, will no doubt be used in the campaign to show her support for education.

Here’s what the newsletter didn’ttell you: The owner of the new Hindu temple on Devon managed to get a family member, Jayesh Shewakaramani, appointed as a Commissioner in Special Services Area #43 (SSA #43), otherwise known as Devon Avenue. This is a special taxing body that assesses a 1.5% extra property tax on all property owners on Devon from Kedzie to Damen and on Western from Granville to Arthur. The temple, now officially declared a religious institution by the Zoning Board of Appeals (only in Chicago!), is exempt from the tax because the temple pays no property taxes. This is true even though the temple’s owner has admitted that the temple is intended to boost the other businesses he owns on Devon.

The appointment was presented to the City Council for approval at last week’s meeting. Interesting, because the SSA’s January 2017 minutes list him as a commissioner already. His status was changed to “Commissioner Applicant” for subsequent meetings. You see how well things are planned in advance? Approach the alderman for support; announce that you are bringing the community together by creating a religious temple that will boost your commercial interests; get a relative on the SSA; abuse residents with “religious” performances next to residential housing, have this abuse enforced by police protection ordered by the alderman.